Why do British soldiers wear berets?
Hi mate The British Army was the first to adopt modern-style berets as part of its uniform. In 1918, the French 70th Chasseurs Alpins were training with the British Tank Corps. The Chasseurs Alpins wore a distinctive large beret and Major-General Sir Hugh Elles, the TC’s Colonel, realised that the beret would be practical headwear for his tank crews, forced to move in a reduced space. He thought, however, that the Chasseur beret was “too sloppy” and the Basque-style beret of the French tank crews was “too skimpy”, so a compromise based on the Scottish tam o’shanter was designed and submitted for the approval of George V in November 1923. It was adopted in March 1924. The beret, boina in Spanish or txapela in Basque, was introduced into Spain during the First Carlist War. Carlists wore red berets (txapelgorri in Basque, which later also came to mean “Carlist soldier”) and Isabellines white ones. The red beret became a Falange symbol when Carlism was merged into it after the Spanish Civi
